Principle IV-2 of the Generally Accepted Commodity Accountability Principles requires that recipient organizations establish and use appropriate storage and handling procedures to protect the quality of commodities and guard against undue losses. It further states that when organizations turn over commodities to subrecipients, issuing organizations have a responsibility to ensure that the subrecipients have acceptable storage and handling capabilities.

Furthermore, Principle II-3 of the Generally Accepted Commodity Accountability Principles states that recipient organizations should maintain documents and records that accurately reflect all transactions involved in the receipt and disposition of all commodities until the commodities are issued for distribution or issued for consumption.

Food assets should be accounted for through an integrated system of financial record keeping at the field and headquarters levels. The books and records at these levels must (1) be accurately kept, (2) reflect at all times the quantities on hand and the amounts disbursed, and (3) meet the needs of internal and external audits.

In addition, 22 CFR 211.10(a) requires that cooperating sponsors and recipient agencies “maintain records and documents in a manner which accurately reflects the operation of the program and all transactions pertaining to the receipt, storage, distribution, sale, inspection and use of commodities.”

General Recommendations

Develop a plan to limit the amount of time between food delivery and distribution and to record the reason(s) for food distributions that take place more than 12 hours after the food delivery.

Develop a list of documents to be retained at distribution sites and require that this documentation is verified during postdistribution monitoring visits.

Source: AUDIT REPORT NO. 7-685-10-003-P February 11, 2010

The recommendations are derived from audit reports of the Office of the Inspector General. The source refers to the audit report, which is available on this site as part of the Audit Database Project: an educational tool for compliance with USAID regulations. Please see the disclaimer of this site before using recommendations.